Essentials of Ecology

18 CHAPTER 1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

environmental problems are population growth,

wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty,

failure to include the harmful environmental costs of

goods and services in their market prices, and insuffi-

cient knowledge of how nature works (Figure 1-12 and

Concept 1-5A).

We have discussed the exponential growth of the

human population (Core Case Study), and here

we will examine other major causes of envi-

ronmental problems in more detail.

Poverty Has Harmful

Environmental and Health Effects

Poverty occurs when people are unable to meet their

basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health,

and education. Poverty has a number of harmful en-

vironmental and health effects (Figure 1-13). The daily

lives of half of the world’s people, who are trying to

live on the equivalent of less than $2 a day, are focused

on getting enough food, water, and cooking and heat-

ing fuel to survive. Desperate for short-term survival,

some of these people deplete and degrade forests, soil,

grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife, at an ever-increasing

rate. They do not have the luxury of worrying about

long-term environmental quality or sustainability.

Poverty affects population growth. To many poor

people, having more children is a matter of survival.

Their children help them gather fuel (mostly wood and

animal dung), haul drinking water, and tend crops and

livestock. Their children also help to care for them in

their old age (which is their 40s or 50s in the poorest

countries) because they do not have social security,

health care, and retirement funds.

While poverty can increase some types of environ-

mental degradation, the reverse is also true. Pollution

and environmental degradation have a severe impact

on the poor and can increase poverty. Consequently,

many of the world’s desperately poor people die pre-

maturely from several preventable health problems.

One such problem is malnutrition from a lack of

protein and other nutrients needed for good health

(Figure 1-14). The resulting weakened condition can

increase the chances of death from normally nonfatal

illnesses, such as diarrhea and measles. A second prob-

lem is limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and

clean drinking water. More than 2.6 billion people (38%

of the world’s population) have no decent bathroom fa-

cilities. They are forced to use fields, backyards, ditches,

and streams. As a result, more than 1 billion people—

one of every seven—get water for drinking, washing,

and cooking from sources polluted by human and ani-

mal feces. A third problem is severe respiratory disease

and premature death from inhaling indoor air pollut-

ants produced by burning wood or coal in open fires or

in poorly vented stoves for heat and cooking.

According to the World Health Organization, these

factors cause premature death for at least 7 million

people each year. This amounts to about 19,200 premature

deaths per day, equivalent to 96 fully loaded 200-passenger

airliners crashing every day with no survivors! Two-thirds

of those dying are children younger than age 5. The

news media rarely cover this ongoing human tragedy.

Population

growth

Unsustainable

resource use

Poverty Excluding

environmental costs

from market prices

Trying to manage nature

without knowing enough

about it

Causes of Environmental Problems

Figure 1-12 Environmental and social scientists have identified five basic causes of the environmental problems we

face (Concept 1-5A). Question: What are three ways in which your lifestyle contributes to these causes?

2.6 billion (38%)

2 billion (29%)

2 billion (29%)

1.1 billion (16%)

Lack of

access to

Number of people

(% of world's population)

Adequate

sanitation facilities

Electricity

Clean drinking

water

Adequate

health care

Adequate

housing

Enough fuel for

heating and cooking

1.1 billion (16%)

1 billion (15%)

Enough food

for good health

0.86 billion (13%)

Figure 1-13 Some harmful results of poverty. Question: Which

two of these effects do you think are the most harmful? Why? (Data

from United Nations, World Bank, and World Health Organization)